A 12-day/11-night expedition among the scattered islands along the shore of the Baja peninsula. Snorkel with young sea lions, walk along desert island ridges and palm-lined arroyos. Visit a remote fishing village and kayak into a mangrove lagoon. An overland visit to ancient cave paintings is a highlight.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
John A. Shedd

Featuring an Exploration of Prehistoric Painted Caves

Discover the Beauty of the Sea of Cortez

Prehistoric Pictographs and Petroglyphs

Blue Whales

Snorkel with Sea Lions

Dolphins

Frigate Birds

Sea Turtles

This itinerary is dependent on the weather and the tides and may change at the captain’s discretion

Day 1: Plan to arrive in Loreto via the Alaska/Horizon Air flight from LAX. Our crew will meet you as you emerge from Customs and Immigration and escort you to our hotel in old Loreto. You will have a couple of hours to explore the many shops and sights, including the first mission church in the Californias, and milepost zero of El Camino Real, which was built to link the missions.

We will have a group dinner in a garden restaurant near the old square.

Day 2: Our van will pick you up at the hotel at 07:00 for the two hour drive to Mulege. Using Mulege as a base, we will explore the several cave painting sites in the area.

There are an unknown number of painted caves in the Sierra mountains of southern Baja. Some are small, with paintings having been protected for thousands of years by small overhanging rock ledges. Other sites are large caves, with remarkably detailed drawings of people and animals. Experts place the ages of these paintings at between 6,000 and 10,000 years. They rival those in Western Europe for artistry and significance.

Returning from the mountains, we will enjoy dinner in one of the many small restaurants in Mulege before retiring to our lodgings for a well-earned night’s sleep.

Day 3: After breakfast you will again board the van for another foray into the Sierras and several more painted caves. After all too short a time, we will return to Mulege for lunch, before driving back to Loreto. Back in Loreto, there will be time to explore the many shops surrounding the town square, or rest in your room before meeting for another group dinner, followed by a night back in the comfort of your hotel.

Day 4: Our guests will set a time to meet for breakfast in a small local café, after which there is time to re-visit your favorite shop in the square. Shopping is better and easier here than it is in La Paz, so this is the place to purchase your gifts to take home.

Our van will meet you at the hotel at 11:00AM and transport you the fifteen miles to the harbor where Westward awaits. After boarding and putting your gear into your stateroom, we will have a short orientation before getting underway for our first night’s anchorage on the shore of Isla Danzante.

Days 5 through 10: We will spend these six days cruising through the scattered islands between Loreto and La Paz. On the way we will kayak along rugged cliffs and into quiet mangrove-lined lagoons, snorkel in impossibly clear water cataloging the myriad fish that seem to fly beneath us, and gather to enjoy truly gourmet meals.

Weather and sea conditions play a huge part in how we select our routes and anchorages, but with thousands of miles of experience in and among these islands, we will show our guests the very best of what is available during our time together.

In these waters we have seen blue, humpback, sperm and fin whales, orcas, common and bottle nose dolphins, pilot whales, and acres of leaping manta and mobila rays. We have had striped marlin swim right next to our boat, and taken so many sunrise and sunset pictures that we have struggled to choose our favorites.

Day 11: We will raise our anchor at midday from our final anchorage and make our way toward La Paz. Once moored at Marina Cortez, we will have time to explore the famous Malecon (a bay-side promenade) before we gather at a local restaurant for a group dinner. We will return to Westward for a slide show of the highlights of our time together, followed by a quiet night in the marina.

Day 12: We will share an early breakfast aboard Westward before we are met by our van for transportation to the Los Cabos International Airport. The van will leave the marina at 8:00, which will get us to the airport by 11:00. Please plan your return flight accordingly.

Crew Members

Name :
Bill Bailey

Position : CAPTAIN / OWNER

Bill has spent most of his life on the water. After growing up as a surfer in Southern California he moved to the Pacific Northwest where he worked as a commercial fisher in Washington and Alaska, used boats to transport materials and crews to construction sites on remote islands, and cruised extensively with his family. He has a soft place in his mind for older wooden boats, and over the years has acquired the skills required to keep them thriving. [More]

Carlos was born and raised in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, where he also went to university. Though he majored in international business, his passion is the sea. [More]

Name :
Caroline Olson

Position : NATURALIST, DECKHAND, KAYAK GUIDE

Caroline was raised in North Dakota, a mere 150 miles from the geographic center of North America. There one cannot be farther from the sea. [More]

Name :
Shane Blair

Position : ENGINEER

Shane grew up on a horse farm in Boulder County, Colorado, with a love for the land and the lifestyle, and developed a passion for early era tractors. [More]

Name :
Randy Good

Position : ENGINEER, SHIP'S CARPENTER

Randy’s fascination with boats began early, while spending time with his dad on the Chesapeake Bay and his gift for innovative construction began with tinkering at his grandfather’s workbench while growing up in Virginia. [More]

Sarah Drummond’s passion for the natural world began at an early age, and she has kept illustrated field journals since she was twelve. Sarah graduated from Maine’s College of the Atlantic, where her studies emphasized general ecology, island ecosystems, and art; and earned her M. A. in environmental studies from Prescott College, Arizona. [More]

Name :
Bernadette Castner

Position : CAPTAIN

Bernadette grew up in the Pacific Northwest and was never too far away from the water. Family summers were spent camping on the coast, or exploring the Puget Sound in the family’s 16ft skiff, fishing and discovering remote islands. [More]

Name :
Michael Neswald

Position : CHEF

Michael began his cooking career at the age of fifteen, busing tables and washing dishes at a historic steakhouse in Canyon Country, California, where he grew up. Since moving to Oregon in 2011, he immediately fell in love with the Pacific Northwest - its wild native ingredients, local farms and beautiful vineyards.

Name :
Paul Brown

Position : CAPTAIN

Paul moved to Seward, Alaska and began working on boats at the impressionable age of nineteen. A flurry of ambition awarded him with his first captain's license two-years later, and he spent the next few years working on the northern Gulf of Alaska. [More]